November 14, 2002 -- "Glengarry Glen Ross," a film based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by David Mamet, is being released on DVD in a special 10-year anniversary two-disk set. It will be available on November 19, but I got an advance copy for review purposes. Since I haven't done a review of this film before, even though I saw it when it first came out, I'm doing a combined DVD and movie review in this article.

This film has a wonderful cast and powerful acting. The camera work by cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchía ("Focus") is also excellent. Mamet wrote the screenplay based on his own acclaimed play. It is emotionally searing stuff. The only problem is, it doesn't look like a real film. It is more like a stage play pretending to be a film. Other than that, it is excellent. Talk about actors, the talent is headed up by Al Pacino and the legendary Jack Lemmon. The rest of the cast is extremely talented as well, Ed Harris "A Beautiful Mind" as Dave Moss, Alan Arkin of "Gattaca" as George Aaronow, Kevin Spacey of "The Big Kahuna," as John Williamson, Alec Baldwin of "Pearl Harbor" as Blake and Jonathan Pryce of "The Suicide Club") as James Lingk. This is one of the most talented casts ever put together, especially for a low-budget movie (under $12 million).

Pacino plays Ricky Roma, the best salesman in a small real estate office, and Lemmon plays Shelley "The Machine" Levene, a salesman who hasn't had any sales lately. Moss and Aaronow are salesmen in the same office. Williamson is the office manager, and Blake is a salesman from the home office in downtown New York (a part written by Mamet especially for this film), who comes to the office to challenge the salesmen to sell more. Blake is brutal in his remarks to the sales staff (Roma is not present in this scene). Spouting vicious profanities, Blake tells them only the two top salesmen will remain on the staff at the end of the month, while the top salesman will get a new car. All the salesmen are very foul-mouthed. They use very vulgar language when talking to each other and seldom miss an opportunity to abuse each other verbally. That there is so little civility in the office and so few social skills is probably due to the dog-eat-dog environment they work. Each salesman is pitted against the others for survival. There is also a lack of ethics in the office. There is only one measure of success and self-respect (and manhood, for that matter), sales. The salesmen are willing to lie, cheat, steal, whatever it takes to make the sale. They are like animals in a jungle. It is not a shining example of humanity, salesmen or capitalism.

There is hardly a woman to be seen on the screen in this bare bones production. There are few sets, few scenes of any kind outside the office, or the Chinese restaurant across the street. Almost all of the dialogue is between two people. There are very few three-way conversations, for instance. About the only movement that takes place is when someone walks from one desk to another. There are few outdoor scenes. In many ways, this is a visually static film. It is not unlike "The Big Kahuna" in that regard. Anchía does his best to liven things up by using a lot of camera movement. The lighting scheme is also very dazzling with some interesting red neon lights used in the restaurant. The color scheme is similarly energetic with a lot of reds, blues and greens, primary colors, not as markedly so as "Dick Tracy" but very noticeable. All these tricks can only go so far, however. It still looks like a stage play trying to become a movie and not quite making the transition.

The strong suit of the film is the acting, of course, with a great cast hitting on all cylinders. Lemmon and Pacino are magnificent and all the other performances are nearly as good. Spacey (who was not yet a big star when this film was made) gives a very controlled performance, and that is what the script calls for. Spacey's character is not as temperamental as the salesmen. He tries to be calm, civil and rational in the face of a lot of hostility. When he finally gets his chance to get even with one of his tormentors we finally see the fire in Spacey's eyes, as well as a small glint of satisfaction. Aaronow, played by the underappreciated Alan Arkin, is the only salesman with a shred of decency. Arkin says in his audio commentary track he would not have taken the part had he not found that streak of morality in his character. This film rates a B.

The 10th Anniversary Special Edition film from Artisan is a two-disk set with the widescreen version (aspect ratio is 2.35:1) on the first disk, along with a new audio commentary by director James Foley ("The Corruptor"). The second disk has the full-screen version of the film (both versions of the film are digitally remastered) with a number of additional audio commentary tracts, including ones by Arkin, Anchía, Baldwin, and Jane Musky, the production designer. There is a clip from Jack Lemmon's appearance on the Charlie Rose TV show in which he talked about his part in the film, a clip with Kevin Spacey doing a scene from the show with a student in the Actors Studio, there are also cast and crew biographies and production notes. Baldwin's audio commentary is interesting. He got into the project because he wanted to work with Pacino. When Pacino backed out, he was offered the part of Ricky Roma. Then Pacino signed on and he ended up working only in a scene in which Pacino does not appear. Baldwin, it turns out, has a knack for mimicking other people's voices.

Featurettes on the second disk include "Magic Time," a tribute to the late Jack Lemmon, and a short documentary on J Roy, a salesman, by Tony Buba. While the video quality in Buba's featurette is very grainy, the salesman is a fascinating guy, typical of a breed of salesman who are a lot more ethical and positive than those in "Glengarry Glen Ross," or most other Hollywood films.

Another featurette on the second disk, called ABC (Always Be Closing) is a series of statements about salesmen filmed against a white backdrop. The Mark Rance production includes some real salesmen, as well as show business people talking about salesmen. Director, producer and writer Gregory Mosher quotes a passage from Arthur Miller writings in 1947. Miller wrote, "Tragedy is a consequence of a man's total compulsion to evaluate himself justly." That sums up Shelley Levene in "Glengarry Glen Ross" just as well as it does Willie Loman in Miller's classic play, "Death of a Salesman." Also appearing in the same featurette is Albert Maysles, who directed the groundbreaking documentary "Salesman" in 1969. Maysles argues that no fictional film about salesmen can ever compete with a documentary film on the same subject. He is probably right. The disks have DTS, as well as 5.1 and 2.0 English Dolby (tm) digital sound, and French 2.0 Dolby digital audio. There are also English and Spanish subtitles. This is a robust DVD set with excellent video quality. It rates an A.

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